


Hear The Sound Of Your Heartbeat Once Again

by Rogue21



Category: Death Parade (Anime), RWBY
Genre: Crossover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2019-04-27 13:22:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14426301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rogue21/pseuds/Rogue21
Summary: Both Roman and Pyrrha were killed in the Fall of Beacon, Roman to the jaws of a Grimm that crashed into a ship and Pyrrha to the hand of Cinder Fall. But here they reunite in the Quindecim, a bar in the limbo of the afterlife where they shall play a game to determine their fate.





	Hear The Sound Of Your Heartbeat Once Again

Roman Torchwick couldn’t remember what he was doing before this elevator, it was as if there was a large blank space in his mind. As the doors of the elevator opened he found himself in a luxurious modern lobby that led into a bar. There were glass tanks filled with small blue jellyfish and a large chandelier on the ceiling. Standing behind the bar was a white haired man pouring a martini from a cocktail mixer.

 

“Welcome to the Quindecim, my name is Decim, would you care for a drink?” the man asked him politely.

  
“Scotch, the older the better,” Roman replied as he walked towards the bar and took a seat. “This place is better than most I’ve been to, but why is it so quiet?”

 

“This is a…more exclusive establishment,” Decim replied as he opened up a twenty year old bottle of Rosebank single-malt Scotch and poured Roman a glass.

  
“You know it’s the funniest thing I don’t remember how I got here,” Roman said to Decim.

  
“It’ll become clear soon, ah our other guest is here,” he replied. Roman turned around to see a very confused Pyrrha Nikos wandering in.

 

“Pyrrha?” he asked in surprise. What would she be doing here in a place like this?

  
“Roman Torchwick, what are you doing here?” she asked just as surprised to see him.

 

“Drink?” Decim offered.

  
“Water please,” Pyrrha said coming to sit at the bar.

 

“I’m surprised to see you here, I figured this wouldn’t be your scene,” Roman said to her.

  
“You would be right, but I don’t remember how I got here, I was in the lift and well…here I am,” Pyrrha said.

 

“When you are done with your drinks, I shall tell you why you are here,” Decim said as he poured a bottle of spring water into a glass. There was a quiet moment between the three of them as Roman and Pyrrha had their drinks. As Roman pushed his empty glass to Decim, the bartender placed a button the table.

  
“You two are here to play a game, press this button and a game will be randomly selected for you,” he said to the both of them. Roman and Pyrrha both glanced at the button.

 

“Ladies first,” Roman said. Pyrrha took his word and pressed the button. The squares behind the bar started to light up and landed on a square.

 

“You two shall be playing Chess,” Decim announced. There was a shaking as a Chess table was revealed from the ground and two chairs with it. Both of them looked at the table and the chess pieces that were set. Decim gestured to the Chess table and they both got up from the bar and walked over to it. There was a black set and a white set with both the Kings having skulls on their crowns. “For one of you to win, one of you must make Checkmate, begin.”

 

“Okay then,” Roman muttered. Chess was never one of his strong suits, he was more of a poker man himself. They sat at the Chess table, Roman using the white pieces and Pyrrha using the black pieces.

  
“White moves first,” Decim said. Roman took a pawn piece and moved it two squares. Pyrrha then took her black knight and moved it. It was about two or three more moves before Roman took one of Pyrrha’s pawns and then it struck him.

 

_“You want to be a hero? Then play the part and die like every other Huntsman in history!”_

 

Roman blinked in shock for a second dropping the black pawn piece onto the board.

  
“Are you okay?” Pyrrha asked him.

  
“Yes I just…I just remembered something, I yelled something at Ruby Rose,” he said and picked up the pawn piece and dropped it in the box beside the board. Pyrrha moved her pawn to take one of Roman’s and then felt the jolt of a vision.

 

_“I’m sorry.”_

 

“Weird,” she said as she put the piece into the box.

 

“What?”

  
“I remember, I kissed Jaune…and then I left him,” she replied.

  
“The nervous blond boy?” Roman asked. Pyrrha nodded at the question as Roman moved his rook. “Good on you for showing him how you feel, can’t have been easy, being that forward.”

 

“No, it took every bit of myself to do it but to leave him felt so…easy,” Pyrrha replied. As the game continued and they each started taking each other’s pieces, more memories began to unfold. Pyrrha fighting the Vytal Tournament, Roman getting access to James Ironwood’s ship, Penny being killed, they both witnessed that.

 

“What was that girls name?” Roman asked her as he moved his Queen to take one of Pyrrha’s pawns, he seemed to be winning as he had taken more of her pieces.

 

“Penny, she was nice but…I can’t believe I…” it was too much for Pyrrha to remember as she started to cry. Roman pushed his rook ready to take the last pawn from Pyrrha but seeing her tears felt wrong, he pushed the rook the other way guarding his King instead.

 

“It’s not easy…accepting a kill, I never wanted to do it, but…I had no choice, I was just a kid,” Roman said as a memory resurfaced, a very old one. A scared child pointing a gun at a large intimidating man.

 

_“Give me that bag kid, now!”_

_BANG!_

 

“I didn’t mean to kill her, I…I thought I was deflecting her attack,” Pyrrha said. She pushed her knight forward and took one of Romans last four pawns. Roman pushed his Rook and took the last pawn.

 

“Check.” He said as another memory resurfaced. He clutched at his chest in pain as the memory saw him standing over Ruby, she was scared and defenceless and just as he was about to strike, something grabbed him.

  
“Roman?” Pyrrha asked in concern as he started to breathe rapidly. “Roman what’s wrong?”

 

“I’m dead!” he exclaimed. There was silence as Pyrrha’s eyes widened and she remembered. Cinder standing over her and the last words she said to the villain.

 

_“Do you believe in destiny?”_

 

“We’re both dead…is it true, are we both dead?” Pyrrha asked Decim who nodded at her answer.

  
“Yes, this is the place where souls go to be judged before they’re sent either to heaven or hell, when your game is finished then the judging shall be final,” he explained. Pyrrha looked at Roman who nodded and she pushed her knight forward again.

 

“I take your final bishop.”

 

“Check.”

 

“Check.” Seven pieces remained on the board. Roman’s King, rook and three pawns and Pyrrha’s own King and knight. Roman studied the pieces, he could get checkmate if he pushed the rook towards the knight, but she could get his King by going after his pawn nearest to the King. He wanted to win, but from the memories that had resurfaced, it seemed at Pyrrha’s had been more heart-warming than his, she had reminisced about friends and the tournament before the horror of the Beacon attack whilst his memories had been nothing but crime sprees, getting arrested and escaping prison and…his death at the jaws of that Grimm. He pushed the Rook away and Pyrrha took the pawn.

  
“Checkmate Roman,” she said.

 

“Congratulations Pyrrha,” he said and pushed his pieces into the box. The Chess table was cleared away as the two were brought back to the bar where they had another drink. Decim watched them closely as they talked about their friends. Roman and his sibling-like relationship to Neo and how she was the only family he really had for a while and Pyrrha talking about her huge crush on Jaune and the dress he wore to the dance.

 

“He was an idiot for not seeing things sooner,” Roman said as he downed his Scotch.

  
“But he was sweet about everything, I miss Jaune so much,” Pyrrha said.

  
“I miss Neo, she was the sister I never had,” Roman said. Decim smiled at the two of them. Pyrrha’s heart was pure and good, perfect for reincarnation but while darkness remained in the heart of Roman, it was born from poverty, loneliness, a lack of friendship and the need to survive, perhaps there was a chance for him to be reborn anew.

 

“It is now time, let us proceed to the elevator,” Decim said. They went to the elevator where Roman and Pyrrha both hugged each other goodbye. As they went into their lifts, the doors closed and both lifts ascended upwards as their souls went forth into reincarnation.


End file.
